Kansas museum restores Stearman Model 4D plane

The Wichita Eagle reports that the "Texaco 11" was scheduled to be dedicated to the museum Tuesday night. The museum's historian, Walt House, says it took nine years to restore the plane. Officials say 40 of the planes were built in Wichita from 1929 through 1931, and only 14 still exist.

The plane first served as a fleet plane for Texaco, then as a crop duster in Mississippi before being sold to the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1941. Records show it was dismantled and salvaged in 1965.

The museum acquired the plane's remnants in 1998, donated by Bruce Bissonette, a retired aviation writer from El Paso. The Women of Wichita foundation donated $20,000 for the plane's restoration.